Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing Building Boom.

Category Archives: Burano condos

Bay Street condo and apartment towers stand in silhouette under fiery orange clouds during tonight’s sunset (as seen from my balcony east of Jarvis Street). The buildings topped by construction cranes are the two U Condos towers at Bay and St Mary Streets (far right) and the FIVE Condos tower at Yonge and St Joseph Streets (second from right). Bookending the view at far left are the Murano and Burano condo towers at Bay and Grosvenor Streets.

Above is a link to my February 2013 Flickr album of building and construction photos I shot during walks in the downtown area. Click once on the image to view a small-format slideshow of the pictures, or click twice to access the album directly on Flickr and see full-size photos and captions.

Above is a link to my January 2013 Flickr album of building and construction photos I shot during walks in the downtown area. Click once on the image to view a small-format slideshow of the pictures, or click twice to access the album directly on Flickr and see full-size photos and captions.

June 13 2012: The Burano condo tower, viewed from the north on Bay Street, has long been in public view as the construction climbed 50 floors above the ground …

… and the 3-storey glass atrium at the north side of the Burano condo site is finally in full view, too, now that hoarding has been removed from Grosvenor Street

June 13 2012: Landscaping and construction of an Italian-style piazza is underway next to the atrium on the Grosvenor Street flank of the condo complex

June 13 201: Most of the rebuilt Bay Street facade of the historic Addison automotive building is now visible as construction hoarding is gradually removed from the sidewalk

June 13 2012: The new Women’s College Hospital building (left) rises behind the Burano condo complex, viewed here from the southeast corner of Bay and Grenville Streets

Better views: Construction progress on the Burano Condominium on Bay Street has been clearly visible for many months as the tower climbed 50 storeys into the sky, but now passersby are getting to see how downtown’s newest skyscraper looks at street level.

With exterior work on the Burano tower nearly complete, crews have been able to begin removing the wooden hoarding and the chainlink security fences that have obscured street-level views of the building, including its signature glass atrium on Grosvenor Street and the rebuilt brick facade of the historic Addison on Bay automotive showroom and garage along Bay Street and Grenville Street.

This red and white crane has been a familiar sight above the Burano Condos construction site since the fall of 2009 …

… but it will soon be disassembled and removed from the top of the 50-storey tower. The portable grey jib crane behind it will finish off the remaining construction work on the building.

Job done: A familiar sight will soon disappear from the city skyline.

The red and white construction crane that helped build the 50-storey Burano condo tower is about to be disassembled and removed from the site, as signalled by the installation of a temporary jib crane atop the building during the past two days. Now that the heavy lifting is done, the big crane will be moved to another construction site, and the smaller jib crane will finish the work that remains on Burano.

February 9 2012: The south side of Burano Condos, viewed from Grenville Street

Progress updates: I had the opportunity to pass through the Bay & College area on my way to some recent appointments, so I brought along my camera to catch up on construction progress in the neighbourhood. My “winter photo walk” series will show you what I’ve been seeing:

The vast construction zone for the new West Don Lands Community is seen in this image taken by a Waterfront Toronto webcam this afternoon. The 80-acre site was blanketed with light snow this morning, less than 24 hours after Waterfront Toronto and Infrastructure Ontario announced that long-awaited construction is finally commencing on the new mixed-use residential community a short distance east of the downtown business district. The highrise under construction at upper left is the 40-storey Clear Spirit condo tower in the nearby Distillery District.

Construction progress on the 75-storey Aura at College Park condo tower is seen in this image captured from a webcam on the Aura website.

The sharply angled glass panels of the atrium provide a striking contrast to the condo tower that soars 50 storeys straight up above it

A Harbourfront Centre webcam image of progress on the new underground parking garage for York Quay Centre. Concrete floor slabs have been poured for the 3 below-grade levels, and work will start soon on the ground-level roof over the structure. New outdoor public spaces will be created on top.

August 12 2011: Burano Condos, seen from the SE corner of Bay and College. The tower has climbed to 40 floors atop its 2-storey heritage building base.

Bay Street beauty: The Burano condo tower has become the newest member of Toronto’s steadily growing club of buildings taller than 40 storeys. On Friday, I counted 40 full floors of concrete, glass and steel rising from Burano’s two-storey base, a reconstructed heritage building that once was home to the Addison on Bay auto dealership. That means construction crews have only 10 more floors to build before Burano tops off: eight additional condominium levels, plus a two-storey mechanical penthouse.

Burano has looked impressive for months as the trapezoid-shaped tower has gradually climbed higher on the downtown skyline. With its angled south wall accenting Bay Street’s bend to the west at Grenville Street, and the striking, sharp points at its northeast and southwest corners, the Burano tower attracts attention from all directions. Its base will make an equally dramatic architectural statement once its three-storey glass lobby is installed on Grosvenor Street.

Windows in the Burano condo tower under construction on Bay Street reflect a deep golden glow at sunset on June 6 2011

Golden glow: For the past few months, I have been able to see a slim section of the new Burano condo tower’s east side from my own condo windows and balcony. Most of my view of Burano’s construction on Bay Street has been blocked by the 21-storey Ontario Coroner’s Courts building (the George Drew building) that sits a half a block to the east at 25 Grosvenor Street. I’ll be able to see much more of Burano once it rises a few floors higher in the next several weeks and overtakes not only the coroner’s building, but also the Murano North condo tower at the corner of Bay and Grosvenor, and climbs closer to its final full height of 50 floors. But Burano already makes a striking impact on my views of the city skyline to the west — especially at sunset on clear days. On those occasions, Burano’s east windows reflect a deep golden glow as neighbouring buildings bounce the sunset against them. And during some brilliant sunsets, the reflections become so intense that Burano’s windows radiate a fiery, molten-lava-like glow that can be painful to watch without sunglasses. The sight reminds me of how Royal Bank Plaza looks when it reflects sunshine from certain angles. Below are several more recent pics of Burano’s golden glow.

June 6 2011: Burano condo tower windows viewed from the east

June 1 2011: The Burano windows have an ember-like glow as the sunset fades

June 3 2011: A fiery reflection off the Burano windows at sunset

June 3 2011: At left is the Murano South condo tower; at right, the top floors of Murano North rise above the Ontario Coroner’s Courts building on Grosvenor Street (officially known as the George Drew Building, it has no windows on its east and west sides). Burano will be the tallest building of the bunch once completed.

June 3 2011: It’s not until sunset that the Burano windows begin to glow boldly, as this photo taken earlier in the evening shows

Catching up to its cousins: The Burano condo tower, left, is slowly but surely closing in on the height of the two Murano condo towers on the opposite side of Bay Street. When topped off at 48 floors, Burano will be the tallest of the bunch — Murano North is 35 storeys, while Murano South is 45. All three condo towers, seen here on March 25 2011, are projects of Lanterra Developments.

Part of the reconstructed Addison on Bay building was revealed this week when protective wrapping was removed from the facade on Grenville St.

This is how the building looked in September 2008 when it was being dismantled to make way for construction of the Burano condo complex

This artistic rendering from the Burano Condos website suggests how the reconstructed building will appear as part of the new condo complex

Addison’s back on Bay! The Addison on Bay Cadillac dealership closed four years ago, and the historic Addison building itself completely disappeared from the landscape during late 2008 and early 2009. But the building is right back where it had operated as a car dealership since 1925 — only now it’s going to have an entirely new life and function as part of the Burano luxury condo complex currently under construction.

The Addison showroom at 832 Bay Street was designated a historical property by the City in 1999. The dealership continued in business for another eight years after that, but finally shuttered its doors in the middle of March 2007. Despite its prominent, lengthy history downtown, the dealership was forced to close the Bay Street business because of “economic factors, including the increasing cost of maintaining a central downtown location,” dealership president Clarke Addison explained in a letter to customers. (Further details about the Addison site and the demise of the downtown dealership were reported in a Toronto Star story published on March 2, 2007.)

Though the downtown location ceased operations, the Addison car business continued — in Mississauga where, as Addison Chevrolet, it’s that city’s “youngest General Motors dealership.”

But the Bay Street property wouldn’t sit idle for long.

Addison had been operating not just the historically-designated showroom and a repair garage on the west side of Bay, between Grosvenor and Grenville Streets, but also a new and used car display lot on the east side of the street, also between Grosvenor and Grenville.

Lanterra Developments ultimately acquired the properties on both sides of Bay, and built the two-tower Murano condo complex on the east side. Since the summer of 2008, it has been building Burano on the west property. During the fall and winter of that year, the Addison showroom was dismantled so the site could be excavated for the condo tower. Once the foundation for the new complex had been built, reconstruction of the Addison building commenced.

Protective sheeting has blocked the facade from public view for the past three months, but a section of wrapping was removed from the Grenville Street wall of the structure late last week.

Below are some pics I took while the Addison building was being dismantled and then re-assembled. There’s also some pics of the newly revealed Addison facade on Grenville Street, along with other recent photos showing construction progress on the Burano condo tower. An album of Burano pics from the beginning of construction to this month can be viewed on the Photo Sets page of the blog.

October 13 2008: The Addison on Bay building gradually being dismantled

November 22 2009: Foundation work begins in the Burano condo excavation

May 2 2010: Addison building takes shape during reconstruction

May 2 2010: Another view of the Addison building reconstruction progress

July 26 2010: Grenville St. view of frame for new Addison building

November 9 2010: Rebuilding progress before the structure went under wraps

December 21 2010: Frame of building partly visible under wraps

February 9 2011: Murano tower, crane seen from College St. at University Ave.

February 9 2011: Burano viewed from Grosvenor Street near Surrey Place

February 20 2011: Burano construction progress viewed from College Street

February 20 2011: Burano viewed from southeast corner of Bay and Grenville

Bold new building for Bay: It’s only approaching one-third of its ultimate height, but the Burano Condos tower already makes a strong visual statement on Bay Street. With its sharply-angled northeast and southeast corners, and freshly-installed reflective windows putting a shiny face on its six lower floors, Burano is attracting plenty of attention these days. Artistic renderings (below) show what the 50-floor tower is expected to look like when completed; the photos that follow show how far Burano’s construction was coming along this week.

Burano Condos construction entrance on Grosvenor Street

Concrete pumper and construction crane atop Burano Condos tower

Windows recently installed on southeast side of Burano Condos tower

Southeast corner of the Burano Condos tower

North side of Burano Condos tower viewed from Grosvenor Street

Northwest side of Burano Condos tower viewed from Grosvenor Street

A nearby building reflects in windows on the north side of Burano Condos